Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Who's Still Looking for Repertoire?

Hi choral director friends,

I hope you are all geared up for the new school year and concert season. I'm pretty excited about some guest conducting/composing appearances I have this year in Pittsburgh, Flagstaff, and Hong Kong, plus four new pieces in print in time for the national ACDA conference here in Chicago. I hope to see you there!

If you are still searching for repertoire for this year, I'd like to suggest a few extended works of mine. These were commissioned pieces with very successful premieres and a few performances after that. But because of their length most every publisher has shied away from putting them into print, thus the need for me to personally advocate for them to receive further performances. In general I think the texts I discovered to set are amazing, and the imagery and content of these texts really inspired my writing. Let me know if you would like to see perusal scores, and most of them already have some sample pages up on my website at www.paulcarey.net

Missa Brevis Incheon SATB div a cappella. A bravura 16 minute work commissioned by the Incheon City Chorale and premiered by them in Seoul last fall. Here's a challenge for a university or professional choir.

Endless Worlds SATB div a cappella. Wonderful texts about music and nature by Tagore. This was commissioned by an ambitious high school choir and they pulled it off. About 15minutes.

Into this World (Four Choral Seasons) SATB/piano. Four texts suggesting the seasons of nature and of our lives. A really sweet, lyrical 16 minute piece. The texts are by Elinor Wylie, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rainer Marie Rilke, and Natalie Goldberg

1944 SATB/string orchestra, or strings one to a part. Highly imaginative WWII text by Hilda Doolittle (HD). The text actually suggested tying in elements of the Bach Christmas Oratorio. I admit it's a slightly odd piece with the war and slight Christmas element, but that's just the way it turned out!

The Bethlehem Star SATB divisi a cappella. This was a Christmas work commission from Nancy Menk and the South Bend Chamber Singers. About 18 minutes with great texts by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Winter's Night Carol SATB(SA)/brass quintet. Thus was a Christmas work commission by an adult choir who had a children's choir associated with them, so there is a children's choir element but it can be easily taken by some of the women of an SATB choir. A very nice recent performance by Illinois Wesleyan University. Nine minutes long with text by Thomas Merton.

Two shorter recent pieces: Voices of Earth SATB/piano. Not difficult and very lyrical, commissioned by Briar Cliff University as part of their ”Care for Creation” initiative this past year.

There you have it- a whole bunch of pieces with great texts and the best music I could think of in setting them, and of course, almost no chance of conventional publication (sigh). Let me know if you'd like to consider any of these pieces for performance!